#series: diversity december

[loganhowlettshousewife]

diversity december masterlist

logan howlett x reader

the idea of diversity december is to write fanfics for people like me who don't often see themselves represented. these don't necessarily need to be holiday related fics, or even winter related. requests are still open until december 1. i may update this masterlist and add more fics.

if any other writers want to participate i would absolutely adore that. even just one fanfic means a lot when you never see things written with you in mind.

latina reader (coming december 1): after the events of logan (2017), in a world where logan survives, he and laura move to a small town to start a new life. laura quickly becomes very attached to the librarian, and seeing you with his daughter makes logan fall hard.

autistic reader (coming december 3): a drabble about logan dealing with reader who gets overstimulated. also slightly a logan character study.

curvy reader (coming december 6): logan is obsessed with your thighs. he spends hours worshiping them. this is literally pure smut where he fucks reader's thighs.

black reader (coming december 9): you're a single mom and you're fine with that. but when your daughter makes a new friend, laura, and you're forced to spend more and more time with her father, you start to fall for his gruff demeanor and kind heart.

afro-latina reader (coming december 11): when you start working as a professor at the x-mansion, you give logan a reason to stay and spend more time there. friends to lovers.

genderfluid reader (coming december 13): you love decorating, you do it for every season and holiday. this time, you convince logan to help you decorate the mansion for winter.

bisexual reader (coming december 15): the worst wolverine comes from a universe very different from this one. a universe where things aren't as great for queer people. so naturally, he panics when you ask him if he has a crush on his roommate. ends in poolverine x reader.

autistic reader (coming december 18): there are days where eating is a struggle, where nothing tastes right and it becomes overwhelming to deal with. logan refuses to let you go to bed without food, so trial and error it is.

disabled reader (coming december 20): dealing with chronic pain is hard, especially as an x-men. but logan is always there to take care of you when you have a bad pain day.

desi reader (coming december 22): trying to teach logan how to cook ends with you on the table, his head between your legs.

latina reader (coming december 24): annoyed at the way laura always makes comments in spanish when she doesn't want him to understand, logan comes to you, asking you to teach him his daughter's native language.

jewish reader (coming december 26): with all the christmas celebrations and decor in the x-mansion, you decide to take it upon yourself to plan hanukkah festivities for the jewish children at the mansion.

jewish reader (coming december 30): as magneto's daughter, you often find yourself fighting the x-men. but it's one x-man in particular that keeps you coming back. you love the adrenaline of fighting and so does logan. but there are other ways to let off steam.

main taglist: @raeinyourdreams @meetmypointlessaddiction @chubbyhedgehog @yxtkiwiyxt @isepod @dis-plus-fanfic-reblog-writes

latina reader: @naggywaggy @mami-veracruz @spencerswh0r3

autistic reader: @thegothempress

curvy reader: @spencerswh0r3 @seasonofthenerd @thegothempress

black reader:

afro-latina reader:

genderfluid reader:

bisexual reader: @spencerswh0r3

disabled reader:

desi reader: @seasonofthenerd

jewish reader:

comment on this post to be added to the taglist or if you only want to be tagged in a specific fic, that's fine too.

[shironezuninja]

If the 2019 Scandal didn’t leave me doing a lifetime of Soul Searching and distancing myself from several anime series, I would be using screenshots from the 9th episode of Ouran High School Host Club to support the people of Pride Month by now.

Thankfully, this screenshot does the job well, and it also reminds me of the late voice actress who had given me a reason to respect that community over flawed/disgraced celebrities.

Madeline Blaustein loved Looney Tunes, and gave our OG Meowth Bugs Bunny’s accent. If she were still with us a decade later before the pandemic, I wonder what she would’ve thought of her Funimation colleague who had left everyone in shock and dealing with mixed emotions.

[duckprintspress]

Back “A Truth Universally Acknowledged” Today!

We’re thrilled to announce that the crowdfunding campaign for our next anthology, A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” is now live on Kickstarter – and already selected by them as a project they love!

With this third installment in our Queer Fanworks Inspired By… anthology series, we set out to explore the truth by which we at Duck Prints Press live: that a classic work without a single canonically queer character must be in want of a very LGBTQIA+ makeover! A Truth Universally Acknowledged: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, with 21 short stories and 20 full-page color artworks, is just that. 38 creators have contributed to this project, drawing inspiration from Pride and Prejudice’s characters and story to create delightful, thoughtful, intriguing, and (of course) very queer fanworks and Pride and Prejudice-inspired original works. For this collection, we encouraged our creators to focus on Sapphic/wlw relationships and/or transgender and genderqueer interpretations for their inspiration, though those are definitely not the only types of queer we’ve fit into this diverse collection. We’re also offering an awesome array of merchandise – art prints and note cards and an enamel pin and a folding fan and more!

We’ll be posting more information about the campaign and the contributing creators throughout the next couple weeks, so make sure to give us a follow on social media.

This campaign ends on December 5th 2024 – don’t miss your chance to get all this awesome stuff! Become a backer today!

It’s also a great time to become a Patreon backer – and you’ll get a free bonus piece of merch if you back both the “A Truth Universally Acknowledged” campaign and are a $10/month or $25/month level supporter!

[monarchisms]

im merely curious because of what you mentioned previously, but what do you think is different between the watcher service vs dropout? i /do/ think there is one, but i can't put my finger on it

as of right now, there are two major differences in my eyes: legacy and diversity

the first point, i had to think on for longer because though i'm familiar with dropout because my friends are into their content, my own perspective is lacking. so, i did some minor research to fact check stuff

dropout, i feel, is an exception to the rule in regards to internet-based companies making their own website/streaming services. until recently, they have existed as collegehumor since fucking 1999. they have lots of prior experiences to reflect on, and a long-term audience that often gives them feedback they're receptive to. their older content staying on youtube alongside some new ongoing stuff still being uploaded there is a nice plus. ryan and shane got popular through unsolved comparatively much sooner in 2016, as did steven in that same year with worth it, watcher currently is only 4 years old, so their foundation is more shaky right now

what also helped alongside that was that the transition wasn't as jarring as watcher's announcement. their subscription price on launch in september 2018 was $3.99 a month up until december, when they eased into tiered subs, which must've helped a lot. afaik, watcher tv has no mobile app (yet?), and many fans outside the US are region-locked without a vpn or something similar. with watcher and dropout in its current day each being $5.99, this leads into...

the second point: diversity. dropout launched mobile versions of their service 3 months after the official launch. watcher is exclusive to one official platform, as mentioned before, but in my opinion, what hurts watcher the most is series diversity. they have like, one series going on for a few weeks or months before another starts, so if someone paid them the fee, it'd be for something they might not even be interested in. likely, they'd binge the series they enjoy and unsub until the next season comes out. dropout has the advantages of both legacy series under the collegehumor name readily available, and their unscripted ongoing series coming out concurrently with a fixed schedule so than something new would be coming out i think every weekday at this point. it's reall more bang for your buck

all of this is why i said watcher "wanted to be dropout so bad" yesterday. they've created Yet Another streaming service with a price and catalogue that doesn't justify its existence. this could've been a more focused patreon. this could've been a youtube membership. this could've been a secret third thing. this could've been anything else than what we got, and it would've had the potential to be better.

tl;dr- this is watcher right now:

[sheikzine]

Preorders for Harp in Shadows: A Sheik Zine are now open!

Harp in Shadows: A Sheik Zine is a collaborative digital fanzine featuring the works of 40+ artists and 10+ writers, dedicated to Sheik from the Legend of Zelda series.

⭐ Get your bundle here! ⭐

Preorders are open from now until December 15th, 2023. All proceeds will be donated to GATE: Global Action for Trans Equality, an organization that works towards justice and equality for trans, gender diverse, and intersex communities. All products will be distributed in late December 2023.

༻༻༻⋇⋆۞⋆⋇༺༺༺

💜 Digital Zine Bundle: $15

◆ 1 Digital Zine PDF

❤️ Merch Bundle: $10

◆ 35 icons & 22 icon pieces (customizable) ◆ 3 Notepads (weekly & monthly calendars) ◆ 3 Wallpapers* ◆ 2 Animations* ◆ 2 Bookmarks ◆ 1 Digital Soundtrack

💙 Full Bundle: $20

◆ 1 Digital Zine PDF ◆ 35 icons & 22 icon pieces (customizable) ◆ 3 Notepads (weekly & monthly calendars) ◆ 3 Wallpapers* ◆ 2 Animations* ◆ 2 Bookmarks ◆ 1 Digital Soundtrack

*Different sizes included

༻༻༻⋇⋆۞⋆⋇༺༺༺

Video edited by @t33th-t00th

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack is Now Available For Pre-order

You can preorder The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack now to start playing immediately when it launches on October 31, 2024 on PC via EA app™, Mac® via Origin, Epic Games Store and Steam®, PlayStation®5, PlayStation®4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One systems. The expansion pack will be released on October 31, 2024, and costs $39.99. 

EA and Maxis have just dropped an official asset pack for their upcoming The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack.

The screenshots showcase the new Grim Reaper Career, brand new World called Ravenwood and unique ghastly interactions coming in this DLC set.

Peel back the veil to uncover the secret to richer Sim lives and beyond in The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack. Achieve your dreams in life by ticking items off your Bucket List or pursue them as a Ghost with Unfinished Business. There is a ghastly new world to haunt, a career that’ll bring you closer to Grim, Wills to write, Crypts to explore, and even ghostly skills to master. There are no real endings — only transitions — as you move between life, afterlife, and even rebirth.

Official Description and Features

An Endless Journey

Build your Bucket List by collecting goals throughout your Sim’s life, starting as a Young Adult. Items will appear on your list based on your Sim’s traits and family relations, and you can also choose your own. Removing items is possible, but completing them yields powerful rewards. If a Sim’s life ends with items still on their list, they can devote their afterlife to completing their Unfinished Business. The ultimate reward for experiencing everything on their list is the option to be Reborn, though you can still choose to Move On or remain on this plane as a Ghost.

A Ghastly, Gorgeous Life

Make death your life’s work with a career of reaping souls, helping Ghosts, dispersing hauntings, and more as a member of Grim’s team. Or, you could become a Mortician and deal with death more from the perspective of the living. Outside of work, you might spend your days exploring Crypts and building your Thanatology skill for the new Ghost Historian Aspiration. These things – among other dark diversions like bonding with your Pet Crow (careful, provoking it could be deadly) or collecting and reading the lost Tarot Cards of Lady Ravendancer Goth – will have a special appeal to Sims who are Macabre, one of 3 new traits.

Goodbye (For Now)

Different Sims will grieve in different ways. There are 4 types that will tie in with both Sims’ personalities and their relationships with the deceased. Grieving Rituals are customizable and unscripted, allowing you to hold whatever type of event (or events) fits your story. In life, Sims can create Wills which can be used to pass down Heirlooms, assign guardians for surviving dependents, distribute their Simoleons, and more. Sims can honor the departed with a memorial display featuring their portrait, and by interring their urns in Crypts or with Custom Caskets and Gravesites.

Friendly or Fiendish?

Linger on as a Ghost and spend your afterlife helping or terrorizing the living. Ghosts will grow in their abilities as they do everything from assisting with household chores to levitating living Sims and hanging them upside down (fun AND profitable - they may drop Simoleons!). Their interactions with the living can earn them Fear or Goodwill essences, which can both be sold for Simoleons. There’s a lot to do after death; Ghosts can even pair up for a special, spectral Woohoo.

Official Sims 4 Life & Death Screens

Life & Death Pre-Order Bonus

If you purchase The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack by December 12th, you’ll receive the Macabre Mementos Digital Content set! This three-piece set contains two new Build items and one CAS item, including:

Lasting Legacy Family Portrait

Mournful Melodies Music Box

Plumed Elegance Mask

Macabre Mementos Digital Content —Wonder at treasures that have endured time’s passing, witnessing the come and go of generations with ghastly grace. Look upon those who came before in the Lasting Legacy Family Portrait, listen to the haunting lullaby of the Mournful Melodies Music Box, and masquerade in fowl finery with the Plumed Elegance Mask, available when you order through December 12**.

[mostlymaudlin]

picking fights

andreil, rated t, <500 words / series: flashes of intimacy

There can be something so pleasant about being unpleasant. Andrew started the day by making Nicky’s face flash with hurt. He repeatedly stepped on the heels of a guy twice his height in the coffee line, and flashed middle fingers as he walked out of his least favorite class.

Bee fills their session talking to Aaron, denying Andrew the opportunity to rile up his brother until they’re driving back to practice. Renee proposes a late night sparring session, then shrugs off Andrew’s silence. He doesn’t want to play pretend, and she doesn’t pick fights she knows she won’t win.

Then there’s Neil. A uniquely irritating figure. Andrew hasn't had to deal with him since morning practice, but Neil hits him with a concerned stare as soon as he steps onto the court. Andrew repays it by sending all Neil’s shots on goal back at his ankles, waiting for that temper to flare.

Andrew’s pulse jumps when Neil finally drops his racquet and stomps toward him. The buzzer goes off as he slams a hand against the wall next to Andrew’s head and grabs at the grating of Andrew’s mask.

“What’s your problem?” Neil asks. It’s not even a hiss — not even a growl.

“Seems like you have the problem,” Andrew says, matching Neil’s calm tone.

“No,” Neil says. “You woke up mad. Fine. Pit yourself against everyone else, but not me. I’m always on your team.”

The words douse the fire in Andrew’s chest, leaving him full of ash, full of dust, full of nothing. Stupid Neil. Andrew should have known better. But he’s forever picking fights he can’t win.

He fists the collar of Neil’s scrimmage pinny, tugging. Neil holds his ground, holds Andrew’s gaze.

“This thing says otherwise,” Andrew says, but Neil only rolls his eyes at the attempted diversion. Apparently satisfied, he lets go of Andrew’s helmet and steps back.

Andrew sits out the rest of practice in retaliation. Later, he brakes at the curb of Fox Tower and waits for everyone to get lost. Neil stays in the passenger seat, watching as the others walk into the building. When they’re out of sight, Neil slumps in his seat and yawns.

Andrew hates him. His eyes nearly water as he swallows a yawn of his own.

He slams the car into park and leaves it running. Neil stares as Andrew rounds the car and yanks open the passenger door, his face a dare.

“Move over,” Andrew says.

Neil blinks in surprise, then climbs into the driver’s seat. “Where to?”

Andrew doesn’t respond. It’s December, but he rolls the window down when Neil merges onto the highway. He sticks his hand out, holding his palm steady against the force of the freezing air.

It’s another fight he can’t win. The wind stops biting when his skin goes numb, but eventually his muscles tire. Andrew rolls up the window, and savors the pins and needles as his fingers come back to life in Neil’s warm palm.

this series is on ao3!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

All the books I reviewed in 2023 (Graphic Novels)

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

It's that time of year again, when I round up all the books I reviewed for my newsletter in the previous year. I posted 21 reviews last year, covering 31 books (there are two series in there!). I also published three books of my own last year (two novels and one nonfiction). A busy year in books!

Every year, these roundups remind me that I did actually manager to get a lot of reading done, even if the list of extremely good books that I didn't read is much longer than the list of books I did read. I read many of these books while doing physiotherapy for my chronic pain, specifically as audiobooks I listened to on my underwater MP3 player while doing my daily laps at the public pool across the street from my house.

After many years of using generic Chinese waterproof MP3s players – whose quality steadily declined over a decade – I gave up and bought a brand-name player, a Shokz Openswim. So far, I have no complaints. Thanks to reader Abbas Halai for recommending this!

https://shokz.com/products/openswim

I load up this gadget with audiobook MP3s bought from Libro.fm, a fantastic, DRM-free alternative to Audible, which is both a monopolist and a prolific wage-thief with a documented history of stealing from writers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/25/can-you-hear-me-now/#acx-ripoff

All right, enough with the process notes, on to the reviews!

GRAPHIC NOVELS

I. Shubiek Lubiek by Deena Mohamed

An intricate alternate history in which wishes are real, and must be refined from a kind of raw wish-stuff that has to be dug out of the earth. Naturally, this has been an important element of geopolitics and colonization, especially since the wish-stuff is concentrated in the global south, particularly Egypt, the setting for our tale. The framing device for the trilogy is the tale of three "first class" wishes: these are the most powerful wishes that civilians are allowed to use, the kind of thing you might use to cure cancer or reverse a crop-failure.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/11/your-wish/#is-my-command

II. Ducks by Kate Beaton

In 2005, Beaton was a newly minted art-school grad facing a crushing load of student debt, a debt she would never be able to manage in the crumbling, post-boom economy of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Like so many Maritimers, she left the home that meant everything for her to travel to Alberta, where the tar sands oil boom promised unmatched riches for anyone willing to take them. Beaton's memoir describes the following four years, as she works her way into a series of oil industry jobs in isolated company towns where men outnumber women 50:1 and where whole communities marinate in a literally toxic brew of carcinogens, misogyny, economic desperation and environmental degradation. The story that follows is – naturally – wrenching, but it is also subtle and ambivalent. Beaton finds camaraderie with – and empathy for – the people she works alongside, even amidst unimaginable, grinding workplace harassment that manifests in both obvious and glancing ways.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/14/hark-an-oilpatch/#kate-beaton

III. Justice Warriors by Matt Bors

Justice Warriors is what you'd get if you put Judge Dredd in a blender with Transmetropolitan and set it to chunky. The setup: the elites of a wasted, tormented world have retreated into Bubble City, beneath a hermetically sealed zone. Within Bubble City, everything is run according to the priorities of the descendants of the most internet-poisoned freaks of the modern internet, click- and clout-chasing mushminds full of corporate-washed platitudes about self-care, diversity and equity, wrapped around come-ons for sugary drinks and dubious dropshipper crapola. It's a cop buddy-story dreamed up by Very Online, very angry creators who live in a present-day world where reality is consistently stupider than satire.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/22/libras-assemble/#the-uz

IV. Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

The story of three young Canadian women meeting up for a getaway to New York City. Zoe and Dani are high-school best friends who haven't seen each other since they graduated and decamped for universities in different cities. Fiona is Dani's art-school classmate, a glamorous and cantankerous artist with an affected air of sophistication. It's a dizzying, beautifully wrought three-body problem as the three protagonists struggle with resentments and love, sex and insecurity. The relationships between Zoe, Dani and Fiona careen wildly from scene to scene and even panel to panel, propelled by sly graphic cues and fantastically understated dialog.

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/11/as-canadian-as/#possible-under-the-circumstances

Like I said, this has been a good year in books for me, and it included three books of my own:

I. Red Team Blues (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

Martin Hench is 67 years old, single, and successful in a career stretching back to the beginnings of Silicon Valley. He lives and roams California in a very comfortable fully-furnished touring bus, The Unsalted Hash, that he bought years ago from a fading rock star. He knows his way around good food and fine drink. He likes intelligent women, and they like him back often enough. Martin is a—contain your excitement—self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money, and people who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s as comfortable with social media as people a quarter his age, and he’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires, and international drug gangs alike. He also knows the Valley like the back of his hand, all the secret histories of charismatic company founders and Sand Hill Road VCs. Because he was there at all the beginnings. Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before—and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

II. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation (nonfiction, Verso)

We can – we must – dismantle the tech platforms. We must to seize the means of computation by forcing Silicon Valley to do the thing it fears most: interoperate. Interoperability will tear down the walls between technologies, allowing users to leave platforms, remix their media, and reconfigure their devices without corporate permission. Interoperability is the only route to the rapid and enduring annihilation of the platforms. The Internet Con is the disassembly manual we need to take back our internet.

https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con

III. The Lost Cause (novel, Tor Books US, Head of Zeus UK)

For young Americans a generation from now, climate change isn't controversial. It's just an overwhelming fact of life. And so are the great efforts to contain and mitigate it. Entire cities are being moved inland from the rising seas. Vast clean-energy projects are springing up everywhere. Disaster relief, the mitigation of floods and superstorms, has become a skill for which tens of millions of people are trained every year. The effort is global. It employs everyone who wants to work. Even when national politics oscillates back to right-wing leaders, the momentum is too great; these vast programs cannot be stopped in their tracks.

But there are still those Americans, mostly elderly, who cling to their red baseball caps, their grievances, their huge vehicles, their anger. To their "alternative" news sources that reassure them that their resentment is right and pure and that "climate change" is just a giant scam. And they're your grandfather, your uncle, your great-aunt. And they're not going anywhere. And they’re armed to the teeth. The Lost Cause asks: What do we do about people who cling to the belief that their own children are the enemy? When, in fact, they're often the elders that we love?

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865939/the-lost-cause

I wrote nine books during lockdown, and there's plenty more to come. The next one is The Bezzle, a followup to Red Team Blues, which comes out in February:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

While you're waiting for that one, I hope the reviews above will help you connect with some excellent books. If you want more of my reviews, here's my annual roundup from 2022:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/01/bookishness/#2022-in-review

Here's my book reviews from 2021:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/08/required-ish-reading/#bibliography

And here's my book reviews from 2020:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/08/required-reading/#recommended-reading

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/01/bookmaker/#2023-in-review

[strangedreamings]

S3E1 (spoilers abound)

Already saw the first 5 minutes on Tudum. I'm firmly in the "Colin didn't see Penelope when he arrived, he was too busy looking at her house" camp. It's sweet that Pen as LW singles out the new debutantes and tries to prop them up.

I love that one of the debutantes is deaf, more diversity on this show is a good thing.

Ah, Francesca's been in Bath since the beginning of S2, thank you, Violet.

"If I can be at ease in the chaos of our home, surely I shall find my way in the Season." Truer words never spoken, Frannie.

Francesca's not the Diamond? WTAF?

Those fucking sheer gloves. I hate them SO MUCH. Long gloves were for modesty, making them sheer makes them pointless. Somebody fetch me the costume designer, I just want to talk.

So Eloise is already "friends" with Cressida and it looks like she is trying to protect Pen from her. We'll see how long this lasts.

Can we nominate Jessica Madsen now for the Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series? I always hate Cressida but if, as rumored, we're going to sympathize with her this season, then I'm sure Jessica will knock it out of the park.

I love that Violet and Kate are getting along so well. I'm also thrilled that Violet doesn't approve of Eloise being friends with Cressida.

"I will move into a dower house as soon as I find one." Oookay, 15 minutes into the first episode and we have our first error. Dower houses aren't something a dowager FINDS, it's a (relatively) smaller house on an estate that the family already HAS. What Violet is looking for is a TOWN house in London since the Bridgertons should already have a DOWER house at Aubrey Hall!

Shonda, please, hire me as a script doctor. I assure you I'm affordable.

Lady Danbury: "Lady Bridgerton." Violet and Kate: "Yes?" I love that and I'm sure Agatha did it deliberately, it's cute.

Colin, dearheart, what in the actual fuck are you doing? Flirting shamelessly is only going to get you in trouble.

Lady Cowper is a bitch but we already knew that. I wonder if she took as long as her daughter to find a husband.

Wow, Portia really has given up on Pen finding a husband. This is giving me "Like Water for Chocolate" vibes (I hated that movie, so it's not a compliment).

Error #2. Unless I'm wrong, this is Spring 1815. (According to Wikipedia, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story had Princess Charlotte dying in November 1814, three years before her real-life counterpart.) Emma wasn't published until December 1815. Yeah, we're talking about only a few months and the book does match what El is going through, but still.

Great, another El & Pen fight. El, you can pretend all you like (and you're not even doing a good job) but you are MISERABLE without your best friend. Someone El respects needs to tell her off so that she'll finally grow the fuck up.

Benedict took care of the estate while Anthony and Kate were on their honeymoon? Um, Anthony, WHY DON'T YOU HAVE A STEWARD?! You know, a person you PAY to look after the estate for you instead of asking your brother to do it for free! It gave him something to do, which I'm sure was Anthony's intention, but still!

The Mondriches have just joined the nobility! Well, their eldest son has. Oh boy, Alice is not happy. I don't blame her -- her stress level just increased a hundredfold.

I need to do a @regencyama post about titles, specifically inheriting them. With the Featheringtons and now the Mondriches having a son inheriting from his mother's bloodline, I need to emphasize how rarely this happened in real life. Good on Shonda for including the concept but really, did it have to happen twice in the same episode?

NEWTON!!! Bestest boy ever!

I know that ballroom! Lady Danbury's ballroom either is or is inspired by the Marble Hall at Kedleston. I'd know those columns and the lines of black-and-white panels anywhere.

Pen, honey, your entrance would go better if you didn't look FUCKING TERRIFIED. Albion is a sweetheart, he's the best brother-in-law for Pen (well, on her side). Oh good, she's finally smiling. Portia! How can you think that's a bad color for her? Is she a little color blind? That would explain SO MUCH.

Suddenly get thirsty there, Colin? LOL He has no idea what's coming.

Some of the (presumably) eligible men are finally noticing Pen. How long before Colin steps in? Oh, Pen, you are so awkward around people you don't know well, glad to see that hasn't changed (yet).

El and Cressida talking to some of the new debutantes while Pen is still being awkward with the men. Forget flirting lessons, she doesn't even know how to just talk to men. And El, lowkey making fun of Miss Hartigan for liking embroidery. Grow up, El. At least this girl is true to herself, unlike someone I could name.

Fife is giving off the CREEPIEST vibes as he talks to poor Frannie. What do you bring to the table, good sir? A title? Look around -- titles are a dime a dozen. Surely you can do better than that.

That's what sets Fran off? This scene was one the clips that Netflix released early. I assume the gentlemen had said something offensive but they simply asked her who she is beyond her hobbies. Well, she has been doing nothing but practicing the pianoforte for what, two years now? Maybe she feels there really isn't much to her than that. Well, she's what, 17 now? She's got plenty of time to find herself.

I love how sympathetic and sweet Pen and Frannie are to each other. They're like sisters already.

Cressida with a steel chair! Seriously, there would be a small room off the ballroom reserved just for mending dresses -- tears happened all the time, as well as melted wax dripping from the candles in the chandeliers, spills, etc. But back to Cressida -- she must think very lowly of herself if she truly cannot abide any competition at all.

Too little, too fucking late, El. Choke on your apology, it's neither needed nor wanted. (I love El but haven't liked her for a long time, if that makes sense.)

Another scene Netflix gave us early -- Pen confronting Colin about what he said about her the end of S2. She was already having a bad night and Colin being all smiles was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Uh oh, Pen's writing a new LW column without even getting changed first. Honey, you're writing this in anger, you're probably going to regret at least half of it.

Portia's sweating now with that phony document about the title being questioned. Oh, this guy is threatening her, in that so very English way.

Ooo, are we finally seeing the real Cressida?

A whispering bench! Sorry, I have the tiniest landscaping nerd inside me.

Looks like Kanthony will have a three-month-old with them the beginning of the next Season.

Colin comes the morning after to apologize. Good boy. Still clueless, but good boy.

The Mondriches at their new house and their eldest boy is addressed as Lord Kent. I'm horrible at guessing children's ages but I think this kid is a preteen at most and his life just changed forever.

I will say the portrait of Edmund and Violet is very good. (I assume it's an actual painting and not a photo that has undergone Photoshop or whatever.) Have the writers made Francesca aro? Or at least demisexual? It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

I fucking told you you'd regret that column, Pen. The funny part is that she's not wrong about Colin, but she's certainly not nice about it.

Colin, for fuck's sake, MARINA AND ELOISE RUINED THEMSELVES! If LW hadn't said anything, things actually would have gone a lot worse for Marina, El, your whole family, and especially you, so shut the fuck up.

Four whole minutes of end credits, seriously?

Well, that was certainly an interesting start to both the Season and the season.

[t4tails]

can i ask abt ur thing w the dolls? like what's the beef? also monster high ftw, the designs weren't all great but most of them ate down

lmao okay, so rainbow high has been one of the biggest brands in the doll collecting world for the past few years - theyre made by MGA, same ppl behind bratz, and the 2nd biggest doll company behind mattel (barbie and monster high + others). im putting the rest of this under a cut because im under the assumption you are not plugged into the doll community at all lol

they were particularly popular because unlike a lot of other brands, they deliberately catered towards older audiences beyond one or two releases a year. they would listen to criticism in regards to diversity; the first series was almost all white girls with the same face, but by the 4th series had multiple different face molds and were incorporating things like vitiligo, albinism, and henna into the dolls, and all at the retail price of $20-30 with fantastic quality clothes.

they also introduced shadow high, a companion brand that was much more, i guess avant garde? than literally anyone is used to seeing from playline fashion dolls

however, at the end of 2023, right after a heavily criticized release of dolls with childish names like "pinkly paige" and "blu brooks"

MGA announced a rebrand for 2024! since leaks in december, rainbow high has completely shifted focus to a much, much younger audience. they ditched later, more interesting and diverse designs in favor of exclusively sticking to the original series 1 cast, and the first release post-rebrand having a SLIME GIMMICK where you fill the dolls clothes and their pets (also new?!) with slime. the outfits were blatant worse ripoffs of the original series 1, and all the dolls come with irremovable glitter on their t-zones. they also completely got rid of wrist articulation.

since then, we've gotten more leaks of the later lines in this rebrand, and its all... well, bad. the winter ones that i was complaining about earlier are just the tip of the iceberg, there also "moonbows" a line with no knee articulation in favor of glitter in their legs, and the already released slumber party line that when compared with the previous pajama line pre-rebrand is just laughable

basically, the current state of the rainbow high brand and its status in collectors minds is kind of a trainwreck you cant look away from

[pjo-gaysofgreeks]

I wrote this silly little thing for a graded final and I figured I’d share…

Allied Authordom: Rowling vs. Riordan

By Serena Martinez

Allyship does not demand perfection, but rather desire to grow. We are all unlearning internalized -phobias and -isms which have been normalized in society. The key to true allyship is recognizing you have the capacity to cause harm, do the work to be better, and consciously avoid hurting someone that way again.

Given the upcoming television adaptations of both J.K. Rowling and Rick Riordan’s popular series, I am going to use them as a case study example. The hoards of Millennials and Gen Zers that grew up with either or both series are now young adults with the ability to think critically and set their own moral principles. I am not sure I know someone in my age range who hasn’t at least watched a Harry Potter movie and most of my friends are eagerly following the new release of the Percy Jackson Series (December 20th!!!). As much as I wish people would turn towards new POC authors who are trailblazing their own paths of authordom, I know many are still tied to the nostalgia of the past.

When first published, neither series included diversity up to today’s standards. Both trios were completely composed of white cisgender people: a male protagonist, a male best friend and sidekick, and a female friend and potential love interest. Although Riordan intentionally made Percy neurodivergent to depict the experiences of his real life son and Rowling crafted the entire series to support species equality, the core representation remained the same. That doesn’t even include Rowling’s problematic stereotyping of the werewolves and goblins who were based on people with HIV/AIDS and Jewish communities respectively. Riordan and Rowling’s subsequent elaboration (or lack thereof) on their respective universes showcases the difference between them as authors and allies.

Rowling has essentially never budged from her original position on representation in her series. To her, making Hermione Black in the theatrical adaptation of the series and retroactively admitting Dumbledore is gay was enough to show she is a proper liberal ally. Many would deem this too little too late, especially given the stereotypes used to describe people of color in the series like Kingsley Shacklebolt and Cho Chang. Rowling showcases prime examples of tokenization without ever addressing such simplistic character depth over two decades after the series’ publication.

Then, of course, there is the significant harm caused by Rowling’s unapologetic transphobia. She has only doubled down since her first transphobic tweet in 2020 by publishing a book about a cisgender man dressing as a woman to murder people (emboldening the false and harmful narrative of the trans predator), donating to anti-trans companies and legislatures, and claiming that continued support of the Harry Potter Universe is proof that people are in support of her transphobia views.

I think Rowling could have come out of this unscathed had she admitted her books were a product of her time and apologized for her wrongdoing to the trans community. Instead, she has only chosen to dig her heels into hatred. Suffice it to say Rowling is the bad example of allyship amongst these two authors.

Riordan, on the other hand, heard readers’ criticism of his predominantly white and straight series and returned with a sequel including complex characters not defined by their racial, gendered, and sexual diversity. Riordan’s central characters in subsequent series were Latini, Creole, Chinese, Native American, Muslim, bisexual, and genderfluid. His newest book that follows a gay couple from the original Percy Jackson universe is co-authored with a queer writer because Riordan did not want to attempt to portray an experience so distinct from his own. When Leah Jeffries who plays Annabeth Chase in the new TV series experienced racism from fans online, Riordan published a statement calling out the behavior. Since interviews have started he has continued to ensure she is supported. Rick Riordan is certainly imperfect but has continued to use his privileged platform to uplift voices rather than misrepresent or silence them.

While Rowling uses Twitter to corral an army of transphobes that dox anyone who looks gender non conforming in their profile picture, Riordan uses his platforms to vocally confront hatred. The same year Rowling mocked gender inclusive language for people who menstruate, Riordan was staunchly calling out transphobes criticizing genderfluidity in his series.

It is not enough to just magically make characters different identities because doing so erases the complexity of each experience and makes representation a farce.

Onto the question everyone has been waiting for: what does this mean for the T.V. series?

This is not just about allyship. This is about how Rowling continues to harm trans communities during a time where they are already experiencing heightened levels of violence.

Do NOT watch the HBO Harry Potter series or anything where Rowling gets streams and thus money! Illegally stream it. Watch the old movies on DVDs you already own. But every view pads her wallet and her ego, emboldening her to fund and support transphobia globally.

Reread the Percy Jackson series in preparation for the much awaited television show. Delve into Harry Potter fanfiction which doesn’t line the pockets of the Author Who Shall Not Be Named. Try new series from queer authors of color who deserve to be platformed far more than Rowling ever did.

[loganhowlettshousewife]

diversity december

december is always a really hard month for me. everything centers around christmas and i'm jewish, which means i'm being constantly reminded that i'm other. as a kid, it was the month where i hated myself and my family the most - because why didn't i get christmas and presents and santa? even now, being an adult in fandom spaces, december is exhausting for me.

so i decided that i'm going to be doing diversity december, where i write fanfics for people like me who don't often see themselves represented. these don't necessarily need to be holiday related fics, or even winter related. so if you want to submit requests for this - please do!

[carinalastimosa]

Man, oh man, oh Manny!

Star Wars’ The Acolyte may have been review bombed but it opened y’alls eyes up to the man, Manny Jacinto. The Filipino-Canadian actor made waves as The Stranger/Qimir. Now, if you haven’t seen the show, I won’t spoil it for you but I am sure by this point, you’ve seen some sort of meme/TikTok/post/text from your nanay, featuring the sexually charged (okay, Disney!!!) scenes between Amanda Stenberg’s Osha and Jacinto. In honor of The Acolyte’s finale, which aired last night on Disney+, here is a list of some of the other Asian men I’ve loved over the years on the big and small screen.

Paolo Montalban - The Definitive Prince Charming

One of my favorite movies, to this day, is the 1997 Whitney Houston produced television movie Cinderella. Even my top 4 on letterboxd proves this. It’s one of my first memories consuming pop culture because of the diversity in casting. Houston saw that this story didn’t have to follow traditional casting norms. You can have a Filipino prince and his parents be a white man and a black woman with no one questioning it! Since I saw this at the young age of 7, I thought this was the norm, when in fact, it was the opposite. It’d be one of those rare moments where my parents would ask, “Filipino?” because they weren’t and still aren’t used to seeing Filipinos on screen. Paolo Montalban as Prince Charming is honestly, charming! He brings an earnestness to the role and has genuine chemistry with the luminous Brandy as the titular Cinderella. Their chemistry was so strong, that they’ve even reprised their roles in the recently released Disney+ movie Descendants: The Rise of Red.

Tuxedo Mask - My First (Animated) Crush

That’s right! We all have one. And my animated crush was Tuxedo Mask from the Sailor Moon series. I mean, who could resist! The mask, so mysterious! The black, so tuxedo!

Dante Basco - Rufioooooooo!

The beauty of film is that it is forever. Which means, that for generations of kids to come, they have the exuberance of Dante Basco captured on screen as Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s Hook. I was one of those kids when I was first introduced to the film in the last 90’s. At first, it didn’t even register to me that Basco is also Filipino-American and I think that’s the beauty of Basco’s performance. He’s just one of the boys, the lost boys. While Basco’s career moved more towards voice over, he made his indelible mark as Zuko in Nickelodeon’s animated Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Charles Melton - This Man is a Movie Star

My first introduction to Charles Milton didn’t come through the hit CW series Riverdale. It was after my time. I’m of the Gossip Girl generation, xoxo. I started to hear about the Korean-American actor as the scene stealer in the hotly anticipated Natalie Portman-Julianne Moore headliner May December. And he didn’t disappoint. Melton completely transforms into a man forced into very adult circumstances, still trying to navigate his adolescence. It’s a deeply felt performance filled with longing. He should have been nominated for an Oscar. During the campaign trail, he exuded glamour with his style, affable charm during his interviews, and pride in his heritage in acceptance speeches. Proving why he should be Hollywood’s new leading man.

Lee Jung-jae - Quit Playing (Squid) Games with my Heart

Netflix probably didn’t realize they had a mega international hit on their hands when they dropped their all Korean language tv series Squid Game on their streaming platform. Studio execs will say a foreign language show will alienate audiences, that there aren’t enough bankable Asian stars even when shows like this and FX’s Shogun have proven otherwise. Squid Game made several stars out of the series, including model turned actor Jung Ho-yeon but Korea was already hot on Lee, already a well established star there, we were just playing catch up. It didn’t take long. Lee won numerous awards for his performance and he easily won my style heart. What an elegant, sexy ass man! Needless to say, I’m very grateful to his Gucci campaign.

Dev Patel - The Man

The Indian-British actor/producer/director has had an already varied and expansive career spanning nearly 2 decades, doing so with just 26 acting credits to his IMDb. Which tells me the industry is simply not using this man enough!

Henry Golding - Crazy Handsome Asian

To me, one of the most magical things a film can pull off is perfect casting. It’s a magic trick if they cast a virtual unknown, dazzling the audience, wondering how they did it. That’s how I felt with the casting of Malaysian-British tv correspondent Henry Golding in the film Crazy Rich Asians. A lot was already riding on this movie adaptation: a big budget, romantic comedy, starring an all Asian cast. It had to do well. Or else studio execs had the “proof” they needed to no longer back Asian-led films. Casting Golding as their leading man could have been a risk but with their heroine Constance Wu and Oscar-worthy supporting performance from Michelle Yeoh, the movie was in good hands. Golding holds his own in his first feature film outing. Effortless and magnetic. Buzzy roles quickly followed in Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor and G.I. Joe franchise Snake Eyes. He’s also taken on more dramatic roles in smaller films, further pushing his acting ability. He continues to develop his craft, further cementing why we fell in love with him in the first place.

Manny Jacinto - The Inspo of this Blog

Everybody say, "Salamat, Manny"! He deserves all the roles. No more getting cut from films! In The Good Place, he played the classic himbo, which could have easily pigeonholded into similar roles but he's shown his versatility in shows like Nine Perfect Strangers where he held his own with, my favorite actress, Nicole Kidman. The Acolyte is another facet he's getting to show us and I hope this momentum carries him to the big screen. I'm rooting for this manny, talaga.

[relatabletrait]

welcome to prince castellan's selection!

how it works:

standard bachelor/ette challenge rules with a twist inspired by kiera cass' series the selection

you do not have to be familiar with the selection at all to enter

there will be one sim "selected" per world (minus batuu bc fuck batuu) [25] competing for one prince

every four sim days there will be an elimination

there will be a discord server for contestants to keep up with my gameplay in basically real time and give input on their contestant's choices and portrayal in my posts (not required but it'll be fun i promise)

i'm going to use this challenge as an experiment in storytelling so each post will include dialogue and there i will try to include an overarching plot/story arc for each contestant. this is my first time doing this so sorry if it's a little cringe!!!

submission requirements:

in the books, the selection is very straight so i recommend feminine sims but i will not kill you if you submit masculine sims because i'm gay

your sim should be a young adult, and can be of any species (alien, vampire, spellcaster, werewolf, mermaid, plant sim, sim). be diverse and have fun playing around with gender, race, species, etc!

please give your sim a couple of everyday outfits as well as the normal amount of other outfits. feel free to make them fancy! they’re staying in a palace!

i am cc minimal so please try not to use cc! presets and sliders are fine (not height) but if you use them let me know which ones so they don't come into my game wonky

there are no pack limitations whatsoever- i have all of them

you must be okay with me using my own defaults on them whether or not this changes their appearance

please use a world no one has already used (i'll keep a list updated under the cut) or have a few in the back of your mind as a backup

in the post, include: name (first and last), traits, aspiration, career, a few skills, and a brief backstory

downloads can be private if you want, dm me after i comment on the post

after we've dmed your sim will be added to the selection page on my blog

tag your post with #rtcastellansel and also tag me!

submissions due friday, december 15th (:

i hope to see you at the palace!

taken worlds will use strikethrough text:

brindleton bay, britechester, chestnut ridge, copperdale, del sol valley, evergreen harbor, forgotten hollow, glimmerbrook, granite falls, henford-on-bagley, magnolia promenade, moonwood mill, mt komorebi, newcrest, oasis springs, san myshuno, san sequoia, selvadorada, sixam, strangerville, sulani, tartosa, tomarang, willow cree, windenburg

[albertonykus]

New episode of Through Time and Clades! In this update to our series on the origin and diversity of birds (Dinosaurs, the Second Chapter), we cover new discoveries in the world of avian evolution since December 2022, including giant penguins, giant eagles, terror bird footprints, and birds with armored necks. In addition, stick around to the end for a special announcement about our other series, Humanity, a Prologue!

[santacoppelia]

Do you have any favorite Good Omens fics you would recommend, or have you written any?

Hi there!!!

Oh, dear, I have A TON! I'm not sure if they would be "new", but here I go, nonetheless. I read a lot of AU fics (and I'm writing one), so I hope it's not a pet peeve of yours! I'll try to limit myself and not recommend things that I have seen recommended a lot (like "Factory Settings", "the therapy one with the impossibly long name" LOL, "Slow Show", "Oopsie Omens"... I'll make a couple of exceptions, tho). I also read a lot of WIP's, love angst, hurt/comfort and fluff, and prefer skipping over smut (Not a against it per se, love sexy times with feelings), so my selection is... Very particular. Here it goes!!

Demon and Angel Professors: I adore this series of short fics. There are 200 of them in the collection, they all are 666 words long, and both the guys and the new characters are absolutely endearing. The diversity of the cast was a welcome addition.

Listen, Will You Learn To Hear Me From Afar?: This one is short, a little sad but very, very sweet. Aziraphale starts receiving flowers and poems every three years, after Crowley disappears in Edinburgh. I loved the poetry selection.

Stalwart Sun, Wily Moon: Probably, my first AU and the one that started it all. I'm pretty sure this is one of the "everyone and their grannies have already read this", but I adore the relationships, the way the characters transformed by entering this universe (Crowley being a fantastic art thief with a magnificent taste for clothes was something I never knew I needed). I would absolutely watch an adaptation of this fic to the screens.

Too Wise To Woo Peaceably: This one is, probably, another one of the "everyone has read this fic and I don't care", but I really feel deeply about it and its author. It was a tour the force, with daily posting and the author reading and answering the comments EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Feral But Fluffy brought me single-handedly into being an active participant in this fandom instead of just lurking in the corners. It's a fantastic continuation from the ending of Season 2, with a lot of angst, hurt, laugh and comfort. And Muriel rings absolutely true in here.

Give A Man A Mask: Another one by Feral! This one is a beautiful seduction game, taking Venice and a Masquerade as the background. Sexy, exciting, and hurtful at the same time.

Postcards From Paris: I find myself absolutely enraptured by the AUs created by Ghostrat (and their illustrations!! I use his AU Streamer!Crowley as my laptop wallpaper), but this one is very close to my heart. One lonely lawyer starts receiving postcards addressed to the previous tenant, signed by one AZF. The concept and execution are lovely. His Streamers AU is also very funny, and the Professors AU (Mon Horrible Cheri) is one of the "must reads with a lot of hits that recommends by itself".

Husband Material: This AU has made me laugh A LOT. Crowley is a wedding planner... And he has to plan the wedding of "the one who got away", Aziraphale. It is still a WIP, and it lights my day whenever it appears in my inbox.

Shepherds of the Damned: an after S2 work, the Crowley recovery arc in this fic had my heart leaping. It is also gripping and full with angst and action. A very noble S3, if you ask me.

Symphony of Second Chances: in this AU, Crowley is a drummer, recovering from a terrible shoulder injury and trying to get back to his place in the orchestra. Aziraphale is the visiting director for the next season... And they are absolutely smitten with each other. A lot of hurt and the sweetest comfort ever (it made me want an Aziraphale in my life more than ever). Still a WIP.

The Anon Before Christmas: This fic was pure happiness and tooth rotting fluff, ideal for December, with a warm cup of cocoa. They are humans and have the nicest group of friends one can ever imagine... But they loathe each other. Of course, one meddling Anathema makes sure to make Crowley Aziraphale's Secret Santa.

To Love The Stars Too Fondly: Another fantastic post S2 fic, filled with love and angst and adventure and all the right things to make it a gripping read, and a GREAT ending. Another take that could be a satisfying alternate canon.

Because We Are Carying The Fire: A horror AU! Aziraphale is a professor with a PhD in parapsychology, and one day he receives a mysterious book. Weird things happen, and he looks for the help of Crowley, a podcaster and self appointed demon expert. It is a WIP, and it really delivers. It is romantic and terrifying at the same time.

And my works!

I've written a short fic, Rebellion, speculating with the causes of The Starmaker's Fall. It came from a prompt imagining "what if rebel angels had been creating alternative lifeforms in the Universe", and it turned slightly dark (because I'm me). I'm also writing and publishing a longer fic, Under The Fold, an AU where AZ Fell and AJ Crowley are journalists who made an exposé that put them in danger and where they will have to use all of their researching abilities to bring justice (and avoid dangers). I've already written 2/3 of it, and half of it is already up, if you feel like reading it!

I enjoyed answering this entirely TOO MUCH. Take all this reading suggestions!